This invention relates to food product cookers, such as cookers for frying tortillas, taco and enchilada shells, tostada bowls and similar food products. The invention will be described herein as embodied in a tostada bowl cooker which receives a baked flat tortilla and forms and frys the tortilla to produce a tostada bowl. It will be understood, of course, that the cooker of the invention can be utilized in producing other food products.
A variety of food product cookers have been utilized in the past, and two prior art devices which provide for continuous cooking of tortilla type products are show in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,948,160 and 4,530,275.
While the earlier equipment has been used in production of food products, some problems have been encountered in speed of operation and equipment wear. In the machines of the prior art, the food product carriers are stacked together and are pushed as a group through the cooking vat. Also as the product carriers leave the overhead vat, they tend to run away downhill, and some form of braking is required to control the movement. Product removal after cooking is aided by bumping and shaking the carriers. These operations result in a slower and rougher operating machine.
Another disadvantage of the earlier machine is the need for manual supervision and aid during loading of the product to be cooked.
It is an object of the invention to provide a new and improved food product cooker and in particular, a cooker which provides an improvement in product quality with a reduction in product rejection rate, and an increase in rate of production.
It is another object of the invention to provide a cooker which is smoother and faster in operation, thus reducing wear and increasing production. A particular object is to provide for product loading without manual aid, and product unloading without inducing vibration.
These and other objects, advantages, features and results will more fully appear in the course of the following description.